


Learning to Belong

by cadkitten



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Adolescent Sexuality, Alternate Universe, Crushes, Desire, First Crush, M/M, Training, Tutoring
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2016-03-17
Packaged: 2018-05-27 05:15:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6271045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cadkitten/pseuds/cadkitten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He learned <i>appreciation</i> as an art form, learned to accept things were maybe not as simple in some regards as they perhaps first appeared to be. He found favorite painters, evolved as a musician by adding <i>passion</i> to his violin pieces, the clinicality of it being washed away as he learned humanity. And every single piece of it was something Talia could never have given him. It was something she'd never allowed the teachers he'd had to provide.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learning to Belong

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nizei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nizei/gifts).



> For Nizei. Ask and ye shall receive  
> Song[s]: http://8tracks.com/sorenawayy/grayson-s-robin

It was _Mother's_ idea and a ridiculous one at that. She'd stopped hiring the best teachers in the world and had started hiring mere tutors to help Damian _explore_ the world a bit more. With his genius IQ and the fact that he was far more than capable in every subject he was currently studying, he had found it more than a tad bit beneath him that his mother thought she needed to do such a thing.

But in private moments - the ones he spent tucked alone in his own mind - he came to realize that perhaps she wasn't too far off base in realizing he wasn't exactly on the best track with his interpersonal abilities. And she had such great expectations for him in the future. Words like ruler and the head of a rising empire had been tossed around when she thought he wasn't in the room. Foolish on her part, to assume he hadn't excelled far beyond her best expectations already. But he hid it well, always had. After all, that was always a big part of the game, wasn't it? Knowing when to play it and when to show your cards. Knowing when to play dumber than you were and when to pound someone into the dirt with your knowledge. It was much the same as battle tactics, as knowing when to hit and when to pull back, when to take the killing blow and when to draw it out. Nothing but life and the simplistic walk through it.

And so, it was with that sort of mentality that he allowed her to book him the endless parade of tutors. One after another they came, some of them seeing too much and never leaving again, some of them never making it past the doorstep when he deemed them unfit to even step foot inside of his home. Until it came to pass that a singular person entered his life. His formal name was Richard, but through some form of pure _idiocy_ he had decided to go by Dick. Ridiculous. 

It had been three months since Dick had been coming in and tutoring him. The subjects varied over the weeks, Dick giving him a good go at whatever subject they encountered, testing out his knowledge versus Damian's own until he was satisfied Damian was either equally well versed or more so than he was himself. His tactics were anything but subtle, but Damian appreciated it nonetheless. Something about being allowed to best someone and for Dick to never once look offended that Damian already knew more than him felt _good_. And it helped that Dick didn't try to engage him in pointless interpersonal conversation most of the time. Most days he taught him or even let Damian teach him when the subject called for it. And not once did he _flaunt_ it when he did know just a smidge more than Damian did.

For months, Damian allowed the progress to continue, allowed Dick to keep coming to him, settling in the private room at the front of the compound a few miles away from his actual home to maintain the family secrets. During the entire time, he picked up the things he'd neglected in his studies; the pieces of life that revolved around the facts he knew, the nuances of why one should care about artwork or mathematics. He learned _appreciation_ as an art form, learned to accept things were maybe not as simple in some regards as they perhaps first appeared to be. He found favorite painters, evolved as a musician by adding _passion_ to his violin pieces, the clinicality of it being washed away as he learned humanity. And every single piece of it was something Talia could never have given him. It was something she'd never allowed the teachers he'd had to provide. 

When it came to pass that they were rapidly running lower on subjects Dick was well-versed in, Damian found himself in a dilemma. He didn't want to give up seeing Dick nearly every single day, but it was also getting difficult for Dick to continue to make the trip out with how little he was actually being compensated. And Damian had been snooping through the records on what Mother had been paying him. Not one bit of it was nearly as much as he deserved for all the things he'd really been providing for Damian. And yet... even as he knew Dick's personal finances were starting to dwindle, Dick never said a word about it. He never asked for a pay raise and he never indicated he would stop coming. Damian kept tabs on it, watching Dick's accounts get lower and lower, watching him dip into savings and even cash in part of his trust fund to continue making the achingly long trips out to tutor him.

When it reached the precipice, the day Dick Grayson opened a credit card and put his first amount of money on it just to purchase the gas for his old beat up car to come out for their tutoring session, Damian felt he finally had to step in. He'd already petitioned his mother with caution to see if she would raise his fee, but each time she had waived him off as if it weren't even worth her time to think about it.

He packed his bags, his violin in one and his necessities in the other, and when Dick arrived at the compound, Damian didn't even ask, he simply opened the back door of Dick's car and deposited his items on the seat, climbing into the front seat and strapping in. Much to his surprise, Dick hadn't even argued with him when he'd told him to take him to wherever he lived; that he needed to spend his next few lessons in the reality of the world.

And that was how he'd ended up _here_ , standing in the cramped little hotel room Dick Grayson had been living out of for the past few months. Damian knew Dick didn't _live_ here, he knew he was from a place called Gotham and that his home was now within a place called Blüdhaven. But this... was where he'd been staying while tutoring him, given that he could never have made the trips back and forth more than three times on his actual budget it made sense that he was here instead.

Damian settled on the edge of the bed, his hands sliding over the cheap blend of the comforter, he had the urge to make some smartass comment about how horrible it felt beneath his touch. But he swallowed it back, intent not to start out his time away from what he was quickly starting to regard as entrapment being an asshole to the man who'd hauled him out. And right then and there, looking up at Dick's pretty blue eyes, he made a vow. _If Talia came after Dick for taking him out here, he'd stand right in her way._

"You know... there's one thing we never did that I _know_ I can probably teach you something about." Dick flashed him the smallest hint of that winning smile he liked to use so much and Damian felt himself trying to dredge one up in return. He gave a tentative little nod of his head and stood, feeling ever so slightly more vulnerable than he had moments before.

Dick headed for the door, motioning Damian after him. Three floors later and Dick swiped his key card, opening a room filled with gym equipment on one end and a huge open training mat area on the other side. The back doors lead out to what looked to be a pool and hot tub combo unit, but Dick went straight for the training mats. He pulled off his sweater, revealing a tank top beneath it and kicked off his shoes, settling into a ready stance on the mat. "Don't let me down, Damian. I know you've got to know at least something about fighting."

Damian's eyes danced with delight as he duplicated Dick's efforts, shedding his overshirt and his shoes before easing onto the mat. "You are in for a world of hurt, Dick Grayson."

"Don't be so sure," Dick breathed out. "Play it fair at least for the first few rounds. Deal?"

"Deal."

Dick counted it down and they began the dance of evaluating their partner's weaknesses. From the way Dick moved, Damian knew he wasn't just being cocky, he at least had some amount of training in fighting, which was presumably why he thought he could actually teach him something here. When the first blows came, Damian easily deflected them, the movements obvious, built in a way that told him Dick was giving him the show to allow him to block it as he tested his strengths. It was an obvious play, but one he couldn’t blame him for. It would have been hell to pay if he'd somehow clocked an unassuming - for all intents and purposes - _adolescent_ and Damian at least understood the desire for him to hold back in that regard.

By the third round, Dick wasn't holding his hits anymore. He was making active work of trying to best Damian at every single turn. And about half of the attacks were managing to break through from the sheer strangeness of his tactics, the showiness of his moves that threw Damian off guard every once in a while.

Minutes passed before, finally, with one sweeping kick, Damian thumped down hard on the mat and Dick knelt right behind him, hand to his throat in the emulation of a blade. There was something burning in Dick's gaze as Damian stared up at him, knowing surprise was painted in his eyes, and he didn't want to deny a single instant of it. A few seconds passed before he slowly reached up, his hand curling in the front of Dick's sweat-laden tank top, easing him closer and closer. Something _new_ surged through him in that moment, making his heart feel like it was seizing up in his chest and his breath stick in his throat and while he'd been taught everything under the sun... he hadn't been taught _this_. Nothing in his past could have prepared him to be pressed against this mat, to just having been bested at the thing he was supposed to be _top of the line_ at, and to feel like _this_.

Their eyes locked - jade to brilliant blue - and Damian almost felt that Dick was being generous with how long he was allowing this to go on. Because he did know what this meant, though he'd never experienced it, and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Dick should have been pushing him away.

When the time finally came - what felt like a flicker of an instant and an eternity all the same - Damian could only feel his heart flutter anxiously in his chest with the desire to chase after him, to follow him up and capture him all for himself. Sitting up on the mat, he closed his eyes for a moment, allowing Dick to see this moment of weakness as he centered himself again. It wasn't something he would have normally managed, something he could have shown just anyone. But if anyone in the world should have been trusted with it, it was this man. He took in a breath, calculating what to say, what to _do_ about any of this.

But before he could get a single word out of his mouth, Dick beat him to it. "I know who your Father is... if you want to know the truth of it." Damian's eyes snapped to Dick's own, his gaze naked and open, revealing far too much, but he couldn't honestly hold it all back. "It's the one thing she's held back from you, isn't it?"

"It is." Damian eased himself up, standing without using his hands in the slightest to help the action. "Tell me."

"Bruce Wayne." Dick paused, letting it sink in for a moment before he offered a quiet, "Batman." 

Damian's heart did a flip-flop, memories of a mask, a suit in his past. Knowledge of the things he'd missed came back to him, brought him closer and closer to the light of the truth. Coming to stand in front of Dick, he reached out, sliding his hand over Dick's chest and then down over his abdomen, feeling the definition there that he'd missed before. "My Father... he is... the man who taught you how to fight?"

"He is." Dick's lips curved in what looked like a very fond smile and Damian felt the stab of a knife in his gut, felt the rain of fire on his back, and the agony of a million things he'd been through and how he'd never _ever_ looked like that when he thought of Talia. Not once in his entire life.

Stepping in, Damian let a fire burn bright in his eyes, one built of determination and hope. "Take me to him." And he knew, for all the world... that this was where he'd learn to _belong_.


End file.
